User-friendly icon sets are always nice to look at and useful to have ready to hand. Since effective designers guide their users' attention using visuals, icons can (and probably should) be used in almost every project you are or will be working on. Whether for an illustration, sketch, site or weblog - used moderately, icons can point users' attention to the key-aspects of an article or specific site sections and communicate the message of the site in a more effective way.

This is why web designers need them. And this is why we look for them. Regularly.

Let's take a look at over 20 free, beautiful and fresh icon sets as well as references to further free icon libraries. Some of the sets can be used for free only for private projects, however most of them can also be used in commercial projects. In both cases - before using icon sets please read the license agreement carefully; it can change from time to time.